Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 128413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
That wasn’t what caught his attention.
It was that the woman wasn’t simply silent and uninvolved in the discussion. She didn’t appear to be present, her expression seeming lax as she stared into the distance away from both Remi and the other group. Though all he could see of her was her profile, the way she stood—her arms loose at her sides, her body swaying the slightest amount— confirmed that something wasn’t quite right.
Shifting his attention off her because she wasn’t the threat, he zeroed in on the brunette. But no matter how much he strained, he couldn’t pick up on the conversation. The group was just a fraction too far away for even his leopard’s acute hearing.
Which left him with only one real choice.
He straightened, and was about to prowl out of the trees when the younger woman jerked her head in his precise direction.
Her eyes were a hauntingly eerie blue, moonstone made liquid.
Remi sucked in a breath. His leopard surged to the surface of his skin at the same time, Remi’s own eyes shifting to the yellow-green of the primal creature that was the other half of his self.
The cat’s response wasn’t, however, aggressive. It was…more complicated. As if the cat was compelled and repelled by her in equal measures. The animal within Remi had belatedly realized the same thing the human part of him already had: she might be strikingly beautiful, but even with her expression no longer distant and vacant, her body held with tension, something about her raised his hackles.
Still, aware that he couldn’t afford to scare her, Remi allowed the human side of him to rise to the surface once again as the woman began to walk toward him. The others didn’t look to be paying attention to her, but, soon, the most heavyset of the men turned to follow her.
Then the older woman called out to him, and the man returned to the huddle around her without giving the blue-eyed woman a second glance.
Not worried. Why should they be?
After all, they were meant to be alone in the wilderness.
In truth, they should have been alone. The heart of RainFire’s territory lay a significant distance away—but that didn’t mean Remi and his packmates didn’t patrol this area on a regular basis. It would’ve been stupid in the extreme to leave an unguarded threat on their border.
No one came after the younger woman even when she walked into the trees, but Remi stepped forward so she wouldn’t come too far. Right now, given the shadows thrown by the other trees immediately around them—a mix of maple and beech along with a stand of poplar—the others would still be able to see the back of her body but would have no chance of spotting Remi.
“Good morning,” he said as he took a deep inhale of her scent in an instinctive changeling act.
Scents could tell you a lot about a person.
Hers was…problematic. Erratic in the most abnormal way he’d ever sensed. He’d never usually use that term about a person—each person’s normal was their own, scent a very unique marker—but it was the only one that suited this specific situation.
Her scent fit none of the parameters for a sentient being. Had it been formed of light, he’d have said the rays were reflecting off a funhouse mirror that distorted everything. Muddy and sluggish and with too many pieces to it, it made his leopard snarl.
Those extraordinary eyes—such a striking translucent hue—held his for a split second before drifting away.
He didn’t mistake it for an act of submission.
Lost in her own world, this woman likely didn’t hold anyone’s eyes.
It would’ve been easy to peg her as neurologically atypical, but that didn’t sit right, either. Not when her scent was so wrong. He’d interacted with others through the years who wouldn’t meet his eyes in the same way, but their scents had read as natural nonetheless.
Never had he met anyone with such a fragmented and unsettled scent…almost as if she wasn’t a whole person at all, rather a collection of disparate pieces that clashed and broke against each other.
The hairs on his nape prickled.
Yet he didn’t do anything to stop her when she reached for his hand. He couldn’t, however, keep his leopard’s claws from pushing out of his skin or his eyes from shifting back to those of his cat. That cat’s initial fascination with her had turned into a confused protectiveness: it didn’t want to hurt her, seeing her as wounded, but it also didn’t want her too close.
She didn’t pause or stare at his clawed hands, continuing on her trajectory until her fingers grazed the face of his mobile comm unit. Small as an ordinary watch, the thing was pristine even more than ten years after its purchase…because Remi had never been able to make himself use it except for this one day every year.